NPR News: 03-17-2026 6AM EDT

0:00Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Kurova Coleman. Israel says it has killed Iran's top security chief, Ali Larajani. Larajani was a former nuclear negotiator and a close ally of Iran's late supreme leader, Ayatoll Ali Hamini. Separately, the Israeli military also says it has assassinated the leader of Iran's main paramilitary force. Officials in the United Arab Emirates briefly closed their airspace today in the Persian Gulf region as it responded to missile and drone threats from Iran. Iran continues to block most shipping in the strait of Hormuz. President Trump is still calling on other nations to help police the waterway, none, has publicly joined. Trump says he's having trouble finding Iranian leaders with whom to negotiate. They're all gone. My biggest problem is I have no idea who we're talking to because nobody ever heard of any of these people. They're all dead, but we did a job for the world. Last weekend, Trump insisted Iran was ready to make a deal.

1:02Iran's foreign minister said that never happened, nor would Iran seek negotiations. Yesterday, the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad was attacked again, and Pierce Jane Arraf reports the U.S. military is trading attacks with Iranian-backed militias in Iraq. The Iraqi government said the U.S. Embassy, an iconic hotel and an oilfield were attacked. This suspected attackers were Iraqi militias that have targeted U.S. facilities in support of Iran. The interior ministry said drone hit Baghdad's Rashid hotel, used by the Iraqi government and foreign delegations. It said there was some damage, but no casualties. The U.S. military Monday launched heavy attacks against Iran-backed militia forces in and around Baghdad and near the Syrian border. One of the militias, Qatar, Hezbollah, considered one of the most powerful in Iraq, announced that a senior commander had been killed in a recent strike. Jane Arraf and Pierre News China is hailing recently completed trade talks with the United States as a success.

2:07Despite the good news, NPR's Emily Fang reports President Trump says he will likely delay a planned visit to China. Chinese and U.S. trade negotiators met in Paris. Which fall, they'd agreed to hold off an implementing punishing trade measures on each other for a year, but that data needs to be extended in November. China has been trying to paint the Paris talks this week as a success, calling them candid and in-depth, but Trump has thrown off a carefully choreographed series of meetings with China's top leader Xi Jinping, saying this week that he would delay a trip to Beijing that he'd been planning for the end of this month. But because of the war, I want to be here. I have to be here. I feel. Last month, the U.S. Supreme Court also ruled to invalidate many of the tariffs Trump had imposed on goods coming from countries, including China, Emily Fang and Pierre News. And you're listening to NPR News from Washington. A new report from Realtor.com says that renting a home during February was the cheapest it's been in four years.

3:08Nationally, a two-bedroom rental is about two percent cheaper than it was a year earlier. NPR Stephen Bessah reports some of the steepest drops in rent prices came in the Sunbelt. Austin, Texas, was once the poster child for skyrocketing rents. But rent in the metro area is down more than $300 since its 2022 peak. Joe Burner is an economist with Realtor.com. He credits a boom of new apartments in Austin and a lot of the Sunbelt. When you ask an economist how to bring prices down, we always say add supply and we're showing that that works in some of these metros. These are for vacant apartments. Burner says renters wanting to save should move or negotiate. It's a renter's market in a lot of these places, so use that to your advantage and negotiate whenever possible. The national median rent for a two-bedroom in February was $1,850. Stephen Bessah and Pierre News. Wildfires in Nebraska have burned more than 1,000 square miles. Most of that is due to the biggest blaze in the state, the moral wildfire in Western

4:11Nebraska. About 18% of that fire is contained. Nebraska Governor Jim Pillen says one person has been killed. Forecasters are posting heat advisories and warnings in the West from San Francisco to Phoenix. The National Weather Service says temperatures in Phoenix could reach well into the triple digits this week. Some regions will be 30 degrees warmer than normal this week. I'm Corva Coleman, NPR News in Washington. At this year's Oscars, one battle after another took home the award for Best Picture, Michael B. Jordan won for lead actor, and the telecast had plenty of jokes at Timothy Shalamet's expense. Listen to a recap on pop culture happy hour via the NPR app or wherever you get your podcasts.